In the morning, it was raining persistantly. Gradually, most of the trampers in Luxmore Hut left for the ridge anyway - a few decided to stay or head back down.

We waited.

Finally, around 2 o'clock, the weather was improving and we decided to start moving - I reckoned we could still make it to Iris Burn Hut before dark. We got rewarded for going late worked out great, as the weather continued to improve. After an hour or so, the drizzle finally stopped altogether. It was very windy on Mt Luxmore though. Further along the ridge, we even got some sunshine. In the end, we arrived at the next hut around dusk.

I did the Kepler somewhere late autumn 2000. I remember there was a bit of snow on the track and Luxmore. I have good memories about spending two nights in Mt. Luxmore hut with only one American 'tramper', sitting near the stove and musing about life and dreams. Good stuff. If you want the Kepler in quieter conditions, do it at the start of the winter season, when the huts are no longer serviced...

The short trip to this peak (along with the rest of the alpine stretch of the Kepler) was one of the best Christmas presents I've had. It looks like Rick B had great weather 2 days earlier, but we had 80 km/h winds and sideways rain. Though it made walking challenging at times, it made the ridge walks exhilirating, the views very atmospheric, and heaps of rainbows.

Completed the whole Kepler track. Great walk! Celebrated christmas standing in lake Manapouri with a bottle of wine we carried for 3 days :-)

Summitted Luxmore on the 2nd day as a sidetrack. The views into Fiordland are fascinating. It's amazing that there's such a vast wilderness, so many peaks, and not a single road or village in it. Just mountains, forests and fiords.

The Luxmore caves are very cool to explore, did this also on the 2nd day. We were very lucky with the weather, not a single drop of rain during the entire walk. Luxmore was still cold and windy, as usual I guess.

The fourth and final day was a bit boring in my opinion, the forest wasn't that spectacular and it became a bit of a dull walk.

Trekked the Kepler track and summited Mt Luxmore on day 1 after dropping the pack at Lumore hut. The day was pretty chilly and the wind was up with a bit of cloud around, but the views were still pretty good. On a very clear day the views would be fantastic. I'm glad we did it on day one, because Day 2 was mega cloudy and well windy!!! We got thrown off the track once or twice by the gusts. I'll get around to typing up my trip report in here ( I have it written down in a book) and post some pics :) If you do the Kepler, also be sure to check out the luxmore caves, they are pretty cool. Also Iris burn falls are nice, not spectacular though. But the short side trip is still worth it, heck, when you are there anyway, you may as well see it all.